What Is Workplace Giving? A Guide for Employers and Employees

What is workplace giving?

Workplace giving is any program that lets employees donate to charitable causes through their employer. That can be as simple as an annual pledge drive or as connected as a year-round program with employer matching, volunteer opportunities, payroll deductions, and impact reporting in one place.

A modern workplace giving platform operates two experiences at once: the employer side (program setup, campaigns, matching rules, reporting) and the employee side (finding causes, giving, volunteering, and seeing impact).

How workplace giving works

Most programs follow the same loop: the employer sets up the program and any matching rules → employees discover causes and give or volunteer → gifts are processed and (where offered) matched → activity flows into reporting for both the employee and the program team.

• 1 · Employer sets up — Program rules, eligible causes, match policy, campaign calendar.
• 2 · Employees participate — Find causes, give one-time or recurring, sign up to volunteer.
• 3 · Gifts processed — Donations routed to nonprofits; matches applied where offered.
• 4 · Everyone sees impact — Employees see personal impact; admins see program results.

Common types of workplace giving

"Workplace giving" is an umbrella. The four most common program types:

Employee giving

Direct donations by employees — one-time gifts during a campaign, recurring gifts to a chosen nonprofit, or participation in employer-sponsored drives (disaster response, Giving Tuesday, year-end). The best programs make discovery easy: employees shouldn't need the EIN of a nonprofit to support it.

Matching gifts

The employer matches employee donations according to a policy — commonly 1:1 up to an annual cap. Matching is consistently the biggest untapped lever in workplace giving: employees routinely leave match dollars unused simply because they don't know the program exists or the submission process is tedious.

See our full matching gifts guide and the momoGood matching gifts feature overview.

Payroll giving

Recurring donations deducted from an employee's paycheck. It's low-friction for the employee and produces steady, predictable support for nonprofits. Payroll, tax, and deductibility treatment vary by jurisdiction and program structure — employers should involve payroll and tax advisors when designing deduction programs. See payroll giving with momoGood.

Employee volunteering

Volunteer programs pair giving with time: curated opportunities, team service days, volunteer time off (VTO), and hour tracking. Some employers add "dollars for doers" grants that convert volunteer hours into donations. See employee volunteering with momoGood.

Benefits for employers

• Engagement and retention — giving programs are a visible, participatory expression of company values.
• Recruiting — candidates increasingly evaluate social-impact programs alongside benefits.
• Culture — campaigns and team volunteering create shared moments across departments.
• Reporting — a connected program produces credible social-impact numbers for leadership.

Benefits for employees

• Amplified impact — matching can double a personal gift.
• Convenience — give, volunteer, and track impact in one place instead of scattered receipts.
• Discovery — find vetted causes and local volunteer opportunities without research.
• Visibility — a personal record of giving and volunteering across the year.

How to start a workplace giving program

Start smaller than you think: pick a clear first campaign, decide whether you'll match, choose a platform that employees will actually open, and plan communications before launch. Our companion guide on building a program employees will use walks through each step, and the buyer's guide covers software evaluation.